A California wildfire that trapped dozens of campers over the weekend burned through at least two dozen homes in the small mountain town of Big Creek, a fire official says.
Donnelly said at least two dozen privately owned homes on a road that juts into a canyon southwest of town were destroyed. Three propane tanks totaling 11,000 gallons exploded, he said, and an elementary school also caught fire, although it wasn't clear whether it burned.
that a church, a library and a historic general store appear to have survived the fire, although Wait's home burned after his family was evacuated early Saturday.Fires burn behind buildings in Big Creek, Calif., on Saturday.Video of the blaze taken by a paramedic from Fresno, Derek Ratzel, showed giant flames and a plume of smoke towering over Southern California Edison offices. Donnelly said firefighters battling the blaze ran out of water Saturday night. Two plant employees who had been evacuated from Big Creek raced back into the flames to establish a new water supply and tie it into the hydrant system, Donnelly said.The fire, which began Friday, exploded to a massive 78,790 acres by Monday afternoon in the Sierra Nevada mountains, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It was zero percent contained.Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, said the fire was so intense that it had created its own thunderstorms with lightning and wind but no rain. Over the weekend, more than 200 people staying at a campground in Sierra National Forest were evacuated by helicopter after the fire quickly surrounded them, making the only road out of the forest impassable.The blaze was one of dozens that firefighters were trying to extinguish over Labor Day weekend. Red flag warnings — the National Weather Service's most serious fire alert — were in effect for much of California through Wednesday as powerful winds were expected to sweep across the state.A record 2 million acres have burned in California so far this year. Scientists have partly attributed the state's increasingly intense wildfire seasons to climate change, which has made the season longer and hotter and its vegetation more combustible. They've also pointed to aIn eastern Washington State, a wildfire tore through the small town of Malden on Monday, burning much of it. Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers toldthat the community’s city hall, library and fire department were all destroyed in the fast-moving fire. So were many homes. “There’s a few homes that are still standing, but when you look at Malden right now it’s pretty close to complete devastation,” he told the station.
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